Browsing All posts tagged under »School«

Remember when I said that rewarding mediocrity would bring down our nation? Or something like that? I’ve always believed that educating children requires hard work and some uncomfortable feelings. Anyone who thinks that education should be all hugs and kisses and warm fuzzy green colored charts is just insane. We’ve reduced our elementary school kids […]

I’m also a student. Since I graduated with my Master’s degree, I have taken almost a dozen workshops and courses through various online graduate and extension programs. I’ve always been a proponent of continuing education. If I expect my students to be perpetually inquisitive, how could I not model that behavior? I’ve taken courses on […]

Cursive. As you’ve all heard by now, Indiana will become the 41st state to no longer require the mastery of cursive handwriting. You won’t see your first or second grader coming home to practice those elegant swirly loops that remind you of hanging vines or aeronautical stunts. There are plenty of arguments against keeping cursive […]

One of my favorite things to do – when I am not reading online articles or reading Facebook updates or reading other people’s blogs – is to do in-depth research on political, cultural, and social trends. As an a career educator, one of my primary areas of interest is how we educate American students and […]

Five boxes. Six years of teaching materials, classroom supplies, and miscellany was condensed into five boxes. Five copy-paper sized boxes. These are condensed down from nine file drawers filled with tests, lesson plans, handouts, samples, and other such educational mayhem that merely landed unceremoniously in the recycling bin. After today, there will be something much […]

Today, after six years, I signed the paperwork. The top of the paper read “separation form” and as I sign at the bottom, a wave of emotion came over me. As the pen scraped off the edge of the line, finishing the last letter of my last name with a last flourish, I felt something […]

For what’s it worth – and truly, it isn’t worth much – this school isn’t all bad. It’s just misguided and mismanaged and micromanaged so poorly that a teacher’s love for teaching is secondary, while the job comes first. Teachers tend to justify the bad parts of the job – crossing the proverbial “t” and […]